River is in the back seat of a stagecoach. She looks outside and the scenery is passing her by. The scenery looks like a forest. The scenery goes by really fast and then stops, then it goes by quickly again. However, the stagecoach doesn't change in its velocity. It bounces a bit up and down as it continues down a cobblestone road but she looks out and the scenery doesn't match her velocity. This is curious to her.

She looks around. She is sharing the stagecoach with three other girls who look just like her, only they aren't her. One looks like a who she might have looked like if she had never been taken by those Blue Sun people. Dressed smartly. Looking as if she hasn't a care in the world. The other her is in a loose-fitting straitjacket and her head is bandaged, as if she's a her who never left Blue Sun, but is still there. I should point out that the jacket's of a design where her limbs are free and she can use her hands. There are belts and clasps visible, but she's not wrapped up. The outfit allows free movement but it should appear as if she's recently been held fast and only now is free.

The fourth River is one that we never see, for it is through her eyes that we perceive the events of her dream. This River is disembodied and unseen perhaps by all but 'our River' the River who looks most like the River we've grown accustomed to knowing. Our River occasionally looks directly at this fourth disembodied River, but it is only a scant look. A self-conscious and random look. As if the first River is aware she's being watched by the fourth River. The other two do not know she is there. Fourth River could also be described as the camera.

"I'll never get used to this," says the River who never went to Blue Sun. "One day, she's at the friendship ceremony. The next day, she's on the news. The coroner's office said she was missing an ear. So I'm thinking, Maybe we're looking for a witch. There's some great spells that work much better with an ear in the mix."

The River wearing a straitjacket rolls her eyes, "That's one fun little hobby you've got there."

The pre-Blue Sun River continues, "Or maybe an ear-harvesting demon that--it's, like, building another demon completely out of ears. Or...Ooh. Thought. We're just assuming someone else cut off the ear. What if it was self-inflicted, like van gogh?"

"So...She brutally stabs herself, dumped the body, then cut off her own ear?"

"No. She cut off her ear, then killed herself, then dumped the body-- I'm really off my game, aren't I?"

Our River looks back out the window. She sees a samurai on a horse riding fast left to right through the woods.

The straitjacket River continues, "I thought I was going to have to use slayer moves on this one woman who was completely hoarding the pumpkin pie filling--"

"Quiet!" Our River turns from the window to quiet her company, "I'm trying to think."

"Yeah well did you forget or..?" Both of the other Rivers point to straitjacket River's bandaged head, "We can't think anymore."

"Well quit using someone else's words. You're not making any sense."

Both of the other Rivers cross their arms and stick out their lower lips, sulking. Our River looks back out the window, but all is black now.

From this point on, the first River will be referred to as River1. River1 is the River who had been taken from Blue Sun by operatives for her brother Simon Tam. River1 is the River who spent time with the crew of Serenity. River1 is the River we recall most fondly, and can also be referred to as our River.

River2 is the second River. She represents who River would have been had Blue Sun never been taken by Blue Sun. She is dressed in a smart conservative outfit which perhaps some kind of school uniform.

The River in a strait jacket with a bandaged head will be referred to as River3 henceforward. River3 represents what River might have been like had she never actually been rescued by her brother, but were instead left indefinitely in a state of limbo, as a human guinea pig. She wears a straight jacket and has a bandaged head.

River1 says, "He's gone."

River2 says, "Who?"

River1 says, "That man. On that beast. And those trees."

River3 says, "Now it's all black with the twinklies."

River2 says, "We should go."

River1 says, "Go where?"

River2 says, "Out. It's not safe here."

River3 says, "It's not safe anywhere."

River1 says, "It's certainly not safe out there in the black. Not without an environmental suit."

River3 refers to her straitjacket. Smiling, she says, "I already got mine!"

The other two Rivers look at her with contempt.

River3 says, "Well it suits me fine."

The stage coach stops bouncing.

River1 says, "It appears we have stopped."

River2 says, "Stopped? But we can't stop here! We'll freeze to death!"

River3 says, "Suits me fine."

River1 says, "We're not going to freeze to death. In actuality we should have died of asphyxiation as there's no air here."

River2 says, "Technically we shouldn't be a we."

River3 says, "Me myself and I!"

River1 says, "We should have exploded since there is no air pressure counterbalancing the pressure within our bodies."

River3 says, "Are you mad? Explode? I will do no such thing. I'm all cozy and warm now. With no brain to speak of. You two can explode all you want just kindly do it so that you don't mess up my new suit."

River2 says, "I don't want to mess up my new suit either. Do you think we're being robbed? Perhaps the stagecoach was stopped by highwaymen, like in those tales of the ancient east and west on the Earth That Was. Those were always exciting.

River1 says, "We've never seen one of those. We've only read about them."

River3 says, "Or heard about them."

River2 says, "Still. I like to pretend I've seen one. They must have been wonderful."

River1 and 3 glance at each other with knowing looks. As if they nonverbally agree that River2 is off her nut.

From outside there's a female voice. It is an english accented voice, with a lilt of what was at one time lunacy and is today perhaps mere eccentricities of the mundane undead.

"Last Stop!"

The three girls look at each other.

Although in her dream, River had until now been perceiving events inside the stagecoach, looking at herself from outside her own body(ies) as if the observing River were a fourth River, now the dream perspective shifts to outside the stagecoach and looking down upon it.

The stagecoach door opens and the girls file out. River1 leads them, with 2 and 3 flanking alongside her one to each side. The stagecoach is manned by four horses, and there's someone hidden in shadow sitting at attention on top of the coach, holding the reins of the horses. From here we see a starry night blanketing a beige sandy landscape. There's no trees nearby. It looks like a desolate western desert prairie. A couple cacti here and there. Perhaps a rock. In the foreground we see a campfire and a lady is stoking the campfire. The lady has long dark brown hair. She's dressed in a red dress that looks to be fashioned in the late 1800s or thereabouts, and yet timeless. Upper class in appearance. Certainly not the sort of woman who would be stoking her own fire, but there she is. The three girls look at her. She motions for them to come closer. They do. As they do, she talks to them, and continues to stoke the fire. The girls walk up to the fire and stand at attention before her.

"These are the things we want." The brunette with a thick english accent says as they approach, "Simple things. Comfort, sex, shelter, food. We always wants them and we wants them all the time."

River3 continues in a cockney accent, "The id doesn't learn it doesn't grow up. It has the ego telling it what it can't have--"

River2 speaks, "--and it has the superego telling it what it should want."

The lady in red stoking the fire continues, "But the id works solely out of the pleasure principle. It wants. Whatever social skills you've learned, however much we've evolved, the pleasure principal is at work in all of us."

River1 reacts flatly, "So?" There is a tinge of rebellion in her stance. The other two Rivers seem to have warmed to this mysterious lady, but River1 is definitely not amused.

The two other girls step behind and 'inside' Our River, and disappear.

River smiles, and says to this mysterious stranger on the other side of the fire, "Not much of a Freudian. More interested in Carl Jung. You know. Collective unconscious. That sort of thing." This River does not speak in an accent, but uses her own voice.

She's being snarky.

The lady in red tries to hide her surprise, "And so you are. Name dropper."

River sticks out her tongue at the lady.

"Careful. I might bite it off."

"Hardly," River stands with the fire between her and the strange woman, "Your time has come and gone."

"I'm like the rebellion. I always rise again."

"Not this time. Drusilla."

Dru laughs nervously but uproariously and a bit too much which reveals her fear, as she throws a log into the fire. The flames grow brighter but neither woman takes a step back. "How could you possibly know who or what I am?"

River shrugs, "Collective unconscious."

Drusilla scoffs, "You think you know. What's to come. What you are. You haven't even begun."

River sneers, "I want to walk and talk and shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a housewife when the stars fade to black."

Drusilla walks around the fire, she holds a wooden stake in her hand. "You think you know why I'm here."

"There's no more trees in the world since she moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones."

"You think you know who I am."

"I'm not her."

"Take it." She offers the wooden stake to River.

"No."

"Take it!" It's a command River resists but still finds her hand reach out slowly and take the wooden stake from Drusilla.

Drusilla rips at the buttons on her dress revealing the skin that is over her heart. She thrusts her bosom at River.

"Slay me. Learn your craft. I'll teach you."

"No. I'm not her. I'm not chosen. That died centuries ago."

"Nothing truly dies," manages Drusilla amidst laughter erupting from her, "or did you not know that?"

River is at a loss for words.

Drusilla continues, "Your brain's been dashed to the rocks, and stuck back together like a voodoo doll. I know what that's like. I know from where you come and where you go."

"You know nothing about me!"

"The voices. The distorted images. The seeing everything and feeling the pressure of everywhere at once and being unable to resist the tide of emotion. The swell of impetus and the shame of impotence. I know everything about you."

"Still. You come to me promising something you cannot offer. A gift I refuse to accept."

"It's needed one last time. You're the only one to do it."

"I don't want it."

"He's coming. In the end you'll be the only one to do it. And I want him to pay for what he has done."

"What has he done? Who is he?"

"Does it matter? The fact he is a beast should be enough."

"You were a beast."

"Are."

"I can tell the stench of death. TRUE death when I smell it. You're not a mind. You're a ghost."

"So I am."

"Quit haunting me."

"Nothing truly dies."

"I don't want this. And I know you haven't the power to give it to me."

"Right you are." Drusilla reaches out and they struggle. They fight around the fire, "But you've the power to take it! CHOOSE!"

River connects a sweeping leg kick which knocks Dru on her back, and River is on top of her, she has the stake poised and Dru taunts her. Dares her to kill her, but River looks up. From the inky blackness, a blonde woman walks into the light of the fire.

It's Buffy Summers, or at the very least a foggy impression that coalesces into what appears to be Buffy Summers. She crosses her arms. She looks at the two of them struggling in the sand.

Behind Buffy we see a long line of other girls; some whom we recognize, and some we do not. Buffy steps into the light and her face is not a face of judgement. She doesn't indicate one way or the other what River should do, but River knows that if she plunges the stake into Drusilla's heart, it means she symbolically accepts her place in that line.

River throws the stake into the fire.

Drusilla screams and tears at River's throat. It looks at first as if she's strangling River, but then we see straitjacketed River3 literally pulled out of River1. Our River falls back and puts a hand to her neck, as Drusilla drags the confused and afraid and alone River3 to the fire.

"Get it out! It's not too late. Reach into the flames and grab the stake! Take your destiny!"

"NO!" River1 is weak and her legs don't react. She can't get up to stop them.

"It's too hot!" River3 reaches out into the flame but then pulls her hand away.

"Through the smoke! It's there! Make your way across the flame!" Drusilla grabs straitjacketed River by the shoulders roughly. Forces her closer to the flames.

"It's going to burn me!" River3 wants to turn and run but Drusilla won't let her.

"If you touch the fire, it will be cold."

"It will?"

River1 calls helplessly, "River, don't!"

Drusilla says to River3 in reference to the fire, "Look into it!"

River3 does, "It's black!"

Dru takes River3's arm and forces it into the flame. River3 marvels that it's not hurting.

"Why can't I feel? My skin should crack and peel!"

"Yes! YES!" Drusilla laughs as River3 pulls out a wooden stake, still on fire and smoldering as its in her hand. "Yes! You ARE the one!"

River3 asks out loud to herself, Why can't I feel?"

River1 demands, "No! No I'm not!"

Drusilla: "I've searched for you! The chosen one! For centuries! HE did this to me! And I need to make him pay. You're the one to make him pay! He's the last one left! You'll be the last slayer! You have to do this! You have to slay him! Nothing else will kill him!"

River1 screams, "No! I don't want this!"

Drusilla says to River3, "Stake me and take your first step towards your new destiny!"

As River1 reaches out helplessly to stop Drusilla, River3 shouts, "I want to feel! I want the fire back!"

The crazy River3 throws away the wooden stake and pushes Drusilla into the fire. Drusilla screams and disappears into the flames.

Buffy and the line of vampire slayers vanish into the night.

River3 crawls to River1. "Please. I want the fire back. I want to feel again!"

"River.."

The two touch hands, and with a bright flash of light, the more familiar River stands alone again, and finds herself whole again, and in a completely different place...

TO BE CONTINUED